Liquid impervious, vapor permeable films have a wide variety of applications including use as outer covers for personal care products (e.g. diapers or incontinence garments), medical garments, industrial workwear and so forth. By providing an article with high breathability (i.e. high vapor permeability) it is possible to provide a body article that is more comfortable to wear since the migration of water vapor through the fabric helps reduce and/or limit discomfort resulting from excess moisture trapped against the skin. In addition, laminates of such films have found use in various bodily articles as well as numerous other applications. The films can provide the desired barrier properties to the article while other materials laminated thereto can provide additional desired characteristics such as strength, abrasion resistance and/or good hand.
In addition to breathability of the film and film laminates, the ability of the garment or article to exhibit elastic properties allows the garment to provide better body conformance. However, providing a low cost film or film laminate that achieves the desired conformance and breathability has proven difficult, particularly with microporous filled-films. In order to achieve good body conformance, the polymer composition of the film desirably has good stretch and recovery properties. However, good stretch and recovery properties can detract from the ability to form a stable pore structure necessary for high breathability. For many applications, though, it is not necessary to have the high breathability and good stretch and recovery properties in the same area of the film. Hence, segmented films can be used to provide different properties to different areas of a product. For example, a segmented film having elastic segments on the outer edges and a breathable barrier segment in the center can be used as an outercover film for a personal care absorbent product. If breathability is required in the elastic segment, aperturing is recognized as a method of making the elastic segment breathable.
However, it can be difficult to aperture a particular segment of a segmented film. There can be many segments spread across the width of a commercial film, and therefore it can be difficult to align the aperturing equipment with the particular segments of a multi-segment film that need to be apertured. Additionally, the widths of the segments that need to be apertured may change depending on the type of product for which the film will be used. For example, different size diapers will have outer cover films with different widths, and the segments of a multi-segment film used to make the outercover will have different widths depending on the diaper's size.
Thus, there exists a need for improved methods of making films and laminates thereof which are capable of providing good breathability and body conformance. Further, there exists a need for improved methods of aperturing segmented films that provide good breathable barrier and elastic properties.